giovedì 21 luglio 2016

Discorso di Laurea

Come mio solito quando arriva un giorno importante, anche in occasione della mia cerimonia di laurea ne ho approfittato per esprimere il mio amore e per trasmettere i miei valori ad amici e parenti, chi dovesse essersi perso il mio discorso può leggerlo qua sotto. Grazie a tutti voi per il supporto costante e incondizionato degli ultimi tre anni.


"C’è un momento nella vita in cui è lecito fermarsi a pensare, un momento in cui è giusto porsi delle domande e uno in cui abbiamo bisogno di trovare delle risposte, un po’ come fanno i filosofi. Sono felice di comunicarvi che oggi, qui, con voi, è uno di quei momenti.

Inizierò con due considerazioni:

Io non volevo studiare, non faceva parte dei miei piani né della mia persona. Lo pensavo tre anni fa e lo penso ancora oggi, ma oggi, posso essere più preciso e affermare che io non volevo studiare, ma volevo e voglio imparare, e, se dovessi rinunciare ad imparare, la mia vita finirebbe li. 

Io non avevo bisogno di un certificato di laurea. Non sopporto chi giudica le capacità di un altro basando la propria opinione su un foglio di carta, e, se devo essere sincero, muoio al pensiero che qualcuno mi giudichi per un foglio che, tutto sommato, non dice niente di me. Pensa e ripensa, e capisci anche che io, non avevo bisogno di una laurea, ma semplicemente di sentirmi sicuro.

E’ vero, certe volte non basta farsi delle domande per trovare delle risposte, o almeno non quelle giuste. La maggior parte delle volte infatti, per quelle dobbiamo aspettare che lo spettacolo inizi. E io, che nello spettacolo recitavo la parte del protagonista, non solo non potevo permettermi di andare un attimo al bagno ma non potevo nemmeno uscire di scena prima degli applausi, o perché no prima del lancio dei pomodori.

Più volte, soprattutto nell'ultimo anno, stremato dal lavoro e dai miei ideali, ho raccontato ad alcuni di voi i miei dubbi e le mie perplessità che si concretizzavano nella mia voglia di mollare gli studi per evitare di sentirmi un incoerente durante il resto della mia vita. Incoerente perché, gli studi, mi hanno insegnato a diventare un uomo di successo, ma, allo stesso tempo, hanno fallito nell'insegnarmi cosa il successo sia.

E’ qui che vi chiedo di chiudere gli occhi per poter chiedere a voi stessi “cos'è il successo?” pensateci, pensateci e tenete la risposta in mente.

La mia laurea racconta che il successo è fatto di numeri, di crescita, di avanzamenti di carriera, di offerta e di domanda, di marketing e promozione, di debiti e di capitale. Ancora, mi hanno insegnato a prendere delle decisioni, mi è stato insegnato quando vendere, quando comprare, quando assumere, e quando licenziare… sono stati bravissimi a insegnarmelo, grazie, prometto che tutte queste cose non le dimenticherò mai…

E c’è anche qualcos'altro che non dimenticherò mai, infatti, fortunatamente ci ha pensato la vita a spiegarmi perché è sbagliato imparare dal manager di un casinò; fortunatamente, siete arrivati voi ad insegnarmi ciò che nessun professore mi ha mai detto, e, fortunatamente, per imparare cosa sia il successo ho dovuto vivere, non studiare. Ho dovuto ascoltarvi e viaggiare per capire che il successo di una persona non è fatto di numeri ma di famiglia, amore, generosità, sacrifici, impegno, determinazione, altruismo e ideali.

Quindi grazie, perché è un sollievo sapere che la mia laurea non sia fatta di numeri ma di persone e di valori, grazie davvero perché il merito è vostro se oggi non mi sento un incoerente.

Infine, ci tengo a precisare che questa non è una dichiarazione di pentimento e non voglio che venga scambiata per tale in alcun modo, sono laureato e mi prendo così, come sono e senza rimorsi, fiero di me così come credo anche voi lo siate. Nel mio percorso di vita che ormai è lungo un quarto di secolo, ho imparato che le coincidenze sono poche mentre le spiegazioni sono tante, tutto è scritto, dentro e fuori di noi.

Più di qualsiasi altra cosa, la mia laurea mi ha insegnato chi sono e chi non sono, cosa voglio e cosa non voglio. La mia laurea, mi ha fatto capire un po’ meglio com'è quel mondo che vorrei. La mia laurea, non solo ha ravvivato la vostra stima e il vostro amore nei miei confronti, ma mi ha anche regalato l’amore di una compagna di viaggio che ormai è diventata parte della mia quotidianità e del mio essere. La mia laurea, è un pass-par-tout per l’edificio del futuro. La mia laurea è ciò che io faro di lei."

venerdì 4 marzo 2016

ON INEQUALITY - by Harry G. Frankfurt

ON INEQUALITY


By Harry G. Frankfurt



Is Equality a moral obbligation? Should we aim at it, or would be better to focus on pursuing poverty alleviation? This is one of the main questions fomenting Frankfurt’s research and therefore also one which is bringing most of the content into his book, or at least, in the first part of it. More generally, this script tries to investigate the morality behind equality, finally coming to the conclusion that morality not only is not directly related to equality, but at the very end of the book it also states that:

"But the widespread conviction that equality itself and as such has some basic value as an independently important moral ideal is not only mistaken. It is an impediment to the identification of what is truly of fundamental moral and social worth."

I will come back to this statement later in this article!

Now, although I admit the book led me to think of Equality as I never did before, it still seems to me like Mr. Frankfurt is kind of focusing on a nutshell. His concept of equality is in fact purely based on possession and property, while I think it is obvious that such a discussion should be focusing on rights instead.

For instance, as endorsed by the author it is true that our society (or maybe our economy) is now more than ever based on "needs creation" and that we often need something just because someone else need that "something", and it is also true that we human become more sensible-emotional when we see someone who can't benefit from minimal living condition rather than when we see someone who can't afford to buy the same latest mobile phone we got.

What cannot be ignored is that in our planet resources are limited, and therefore, can we still assert that we have no moral obbligation to pursue equality? Isn't poverty in a first place a matter of resources' allocation?

In few words I could either think that if everybody had enough I would not care about me having more, or I can be realist and acknowledge that me having more comports someone else around the planet not having enough. Once again, I could discuss with Mr. Frankfurt about what does the word "enough" mean, or we could start working hard and making great sacrifices because we acknowledge all together that in our world there are 80M kids who have absolutely no right to education, 850M people who are undernourished and 670M who have no access to safe water.

Of course we can ponderate about the beauty and complexity of what for each of us the words "enough" or "sufficient" mean, but at the end of the day the world would be exactely the same; but if we want to make this world a little bit better, day by day, then yes, we need to be convinced and to convince others about the fact the each human in Earth should have equal opportunities. This is the basic value that the INDIPENDENTLY MORAL IDEAL OF EQUALITY bring with itself.

Although we should be grateful to Mr. Frankfurt for his scientifical efforts and achievments, I think that this book might slow down our urge as human beings to look for a fair distributions of wellness across disadvantaged geopolitical zones and social classes, it weakens our altruism and threatens our common sense of solidarity.


You might want to read this book if:
  • you would like to save the world;
  • among your previous readings there are authors like Sen, Nussbaum and Stiglitz;
  • you have never questioned the meaning of equality

No best quotations in this reading.
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Thank you for reading my reviews, I would appreciate if you could comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for more reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.

domenica 26 luglio 2015

THE MESH, by Lisa Gansky

THE MESH


By Lisa Gansky


As its tagline forecasts, this book is very business-oriented. You may consider taking one of the previous readings I reviewed if you find yourself more on the side of the consumer, since here you will more likely find out how to mesh up your business and not your life.

So first of all, WHAT is the MESH? I'm pretty sure that there is no better person than the author Lisa Gansky to explain this concept since she is the mind behind its conception. So if you want to make sure you catch up with the real meaning, get the book and give yourself your own interpretation of it.


More concretely, as the author writes "Mesh businesses share four characteristics: sharing, advanced use of Web and mobile information networks, a focus on physical goods and materials, and engagement with customers through social networks". Whereas a "Mesh Design - referred to products - is: Durable, Flexible, Reparable and Sustainable".

After these quotations, it seems clear that the Mesh concept finds its best use in association with the words "business model". However, one of the core characteristics, the one referring to the focus on physical goods, has already got old fashion since the book was pubblished in 2010. Right now, in 2015, I don't think it would be appropriate to state that the materiality of a resource could be associated to its "meshing" nature, the Mesh has got literally everywhere, ranging from skills and competencies to patents, making physical products just a part of it.

What is still to be said, is that the Mesh, just as the sharing economy (someone says they are synonim and I partially agree), shifts the focus from ownership to access, hence representing one of the biggest economic trends of our century.

On my opinion, the reading is quite pleasant but it somehow lacks a little bit of boldness, moreover some more data should have been provided, statistics are sexy and could represent a good of the reading experience. At some point, I think the author confuses the Mesh with one of its attributes: Sustainability. For instance I could think of saying Walmart is getting more sustainable, but I would definitly avoid referring to Walmart when talking about the Mesh, because for me the Mesh is more than that.

Once again, I do recommend this book! Although I'm not fully satisfied with the reading, I do recognize that it is a major work on the topic, and also one of the first of a long series. Don't miss the Mesh Directory at the end of the book, a section plenty of great meshed up businesses - some of them already out of business - to discover!

Make sure you read this book before:
  • starting your own Mesh business;
  • writing a paper on the sharing economy;
  • criticizing mesh businesses for unfair competition.

Best quotations on my opinion:

"Trust is social, which makes all business social; Mesh businesses are hypersocial".

"But like our minds, the Mesh is much greater than the sum of its parts."

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Thank you for reading my reviews, I would appreciate if you could comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for more reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.


Following this book:


WE-THINK
by Charles Leadbeater

WIKINOMICS
by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

giovedì 9 luglio 2015

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS By Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS


By Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers


This book of about 220 pages is considered to be one of the initiators of the sharing econommy litterature. Written and pubblished for the first time in 2009, many situations described in its pages have now substantially evolved, involving new players and disrupting/innovating "old markets".


What I found curious about this book, is that many of its forecasts already turned to be correct. In fact, in 2015, the sharing economy is gaining overall trust as a collective brand, and people are trusting strangers now more than ever.

Even though the book does not really follow an accademic approach, some statistics are presented when most needed, giving more sense to the deep and why not also "philosophic" discussion of the authors who try to convince the world that collaborative consumption is our future.

The book focus on the raising importance of access-based economy, and it does so by arguing that actually, most of the times, we don't need something but we just need what that something does. As for this, also big multinationals such as XEROX, IBM and Steelcase started to follow this pattern, offering to their customers not a product per-se but its functionality. It appears clear that this approach constitutes a valid and relevant incentive for the producers to avoid built-in obsolesence, delaying as much as possible the disposal of the product and therefore prolonging its usage life.

Personally, I loved the chapter Four Principles of Collaborative Consumption. This framework includes four main points: Critical Mass, Idling Capacity, Belief in the Commons, Trust between Strangers. If you want to understand the functioning of collaborative consumption, this basic vocabulary should be known to you at least as good as your pockets. These principles helped me structuring my entire knowledge on the sharing economy, making some order in my brain.


You may consider reading this book if:

  • you wnat to take part to any collaborative consumption activity;
  • you need some extra motiavation to start your sharer-life;
  • you would like to understand the philosophy behind the sharing economy;
  • you are trying to develop your collaborative consumption idea/business
  • you are afraid about the lack of regulation in sharing-economy markets

Best quotations on my opinion:

"Not only do the things we own fill up our closets and our lives, but they also fill our minds".

"Every single person who joins or uses Collaborative Consumption creates value for another person, even if this was not the intention."

"The residents of Topanga had so many ideas that they had to decide where to start. The challange the residents experienced was coordination."

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Rachel Botsman is also founder of the platform www.collaborativeconsumption.com, which is something like a wired magazine for the sharing economy, just with more functions for the users. Take a look to the website for new updates on collaborative consumption.
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Thank you for reading my reviews, I would appreciate if you could comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.


Following this book:

THE MESH
by Lisa Gansky

WE-THINK
by Charles Leadbeater

WIKINOMICS
by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

venerdì 19 giugno 2015

SHARING IS GOOD, by Beth Buczynski

SHARING IS GOOD


By Beth Buczynski


This book contains about 80 pages of introduction to collaborative consumption and sharing economy, and 80 pages of listing and descriptions of collaborative consumption online platforms, so that you can become a sharing economy activist as soon as you finish to read the book.


As I could notice, many of those platforms already went out of market since the book was written, but this might be taken as an hint of which websites are actually doing well and are worth to be tried.

The sharing economy finds its roots in the past, which should be no surprise if we consider that "sharing" is an anthropological attitude that humans bring with them since birth. Said this, it is also true that our culture and our principles change and evolve with the time, letting most of us forget about our innate need for sharing. Here it comes the strength of this book, which tries to convince the reader that Sharing not only is our past but also our future, because the only future that makes sense, is a shared one.


I would not define this reading a "book", rather I would say it is a "determined manual for the user". Its language is comprehensible to everybody, I could find no use of academic terminology at all.


You may want to read this book if:

  • you are considering to take part to any collaborative consumption activity;
  • you need to kill your fears about sharing;
  • you would like to have an introduction to the sharing economy;
  • you want to know all the things you can have access to by using sharing economy based online platforms.

Best quotations on my opinion:

"Through the lens of collaborative consumption, it becomes clear that it's access, not ownership, that's really essential to meeting our needs and want".

"We too, are programmed to share, but as a society, we've work hard to forget it"

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Thank you for reading my reviews, feel free to comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for further reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.


Following this book:

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS
by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers

FREAKONOMICS
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

domenica 14 giugno 2015

THINKING, FAST and SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman

THINKING, FAST and SLOW


By Daniel Kahneman


In this review, I am going to introduce to you a guide to the world of thinking and thinkers. A masterpiece for any lover of decisional economics, and I guess, also for philosophers.
I apologize for the almost two months without writing a single word on my blog. Lately I have pretty busy with a project which took away most of my spare time besides my professional life.

However, I can affirm that the nature of this book might be favourable to a mid-term reading approach, You'll be often provided with brand new terms and concepts which will require a good amount of research, focusing and thinking in order to be digested.

I would define this book as a "novel of statistics", with a careful and systematic order of contents and a strong propension to story-telling. All the effort of the author to facilitate readers' comprehension is to be noticed in all chapters. In fact, besides the accademic content, the book could be read by anyone with a slight passion for economics - or for psychology, although a lack of knowledge within the ad hoc terminology will certainly determine a slower reading. His "adapted" writing style detach itself from accademics writing at least as much as to allow a smooth reading rythm.

"A life-long trip into rationality" is how I would define the life of Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel-Worth Economist/Psychologist - rather than just a Nobel winner - who revolutioned our way to think of decision, declassing the utility theory and finally introducing the prospect theory.

This book will let you face many truths that are all but easy to accept. We, Humans, are exposed to a great number of factors influencing our decisions, many of them taking life into our some mind, and often generatin inconsistent decisions coming from the same individual. The subdivision of our brain - or at least of his way to function - into 2 Systems called "system 1" and "system 2" is in my opinion Kahneman's biggest intellectual property. This frame allow a great understanding of the differens phases involved in the thinking process, then related to the decision making process.

A wonderful feature of this reading is to be found at the end of every single chapter. Here, many citations of the researchers who worked with him are given to the readers as a present. I really enjoyed many citations, and many of them helped me understanding concepts and more generally the presented theories.

You should consider to get this book if:

  • you are studying economics or psychology (or you are interested in them)
  • you are a more conservative economist and you would like to challange your convinctions
  • you would love to get to a deeper meaning of "rationality"
  • you want to know to which extent our intuitions are to be trusted
  • you would like to discover if your will to undertake a particular choice is biased by something you can't see (nor think of)
  • you love behavioural statistics

I seriously believe that this book changed my way to approach decision making. It made me aware of more types of bias I was not aware before the reading. As I think the author would appreciate, I can state that this book won't keep me away from taking inconsistent decisions, but it will, however, give me a great basis to learn how to set "alarms" that will inform me about the occuring of a situation in which I am more likely to face a specific type of bias.


Best quotations on my opinion:

"The most coherent stories are not necessarily the most probable, but they are plausible, and the notions of coherence, plausibility, and probability are easily confused by the unwary".

"You will occasionally do more than your share, but it useful to know that you are likely to have that feeling even when each member of the team feels the same way."

"Remember that System 2 is lazy and that mental effort is aversive."


I would like to thank Professor Kahneman as well as the researchers who helped him achieving his goals. This book should be a part of everybody's life, for a world of knowledge and progress.
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Thank you for reading my review, feel free to comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for further reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.


Following this book:

SHARING IS GOOD
by Beth Buczynski

FREAKONOMICS
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

domenica 12 aprile 2015

THE ALMOST NEARLY PERFECT PEOPLE by Michael Boot

THE ALMOST NEARLY PERFECT PEOPLE
(Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia)


By Michael Boot


Considering my past which saw me spending one beautiful year in the cold Sweden - including two trips to Finland -, this book was a great occasion to reflect on how Scandinavia and its peolple changed my way to be and my expectations. I can definitely say I found myself understanding the point of view of the author all the 406 pages long, even if, a couple of times, I could not agree with his hypothesis. Nonetheless, I think this is exactly what made up my reading experience, hence trying to compare my point of view with his way to analyze facts. Moreover, he referred several times to other scandinavian anthropological readings, I think I will get them all sooner or later.

A mix of history, politics, philosophy and much more makes of this book a pleasant and interesting reading, and, as it is usual among the books I normally select, a good portion of statistics contribute to improve readers' overall comprehension. Its language is far away from the "ultra-fluent" American English we would find in Dubner and Levitt's global best sellers, but by taking advantage of an infinitely wide range of adjectives - sometimes carefully selected from slang British - the author determines his way to be bold and provocative.

Along this reading you will be questioning in their deepest meaning topics like: Social Democracy, Neutrality, Censorship, Prohibitionism, Propaganda, Atheism, Capitalism, Feminism, Parenthood, Childhood, Happyness, Privatization and much more. You won't miss a chance to get your head working, trust me you won't.

Moreover, I also appreciated his way to show - on purpose - his imperfection, represented by the difficulties which pop up when trying to understand someone else's culture. I personally experienced this, believe me, if you are Italian it is hard to have an high-school teacher who tells you "I think that you should...." instead of "You must....". I mean, I was 18, and I kind of needed teachers to look pretty sure when teaching something to me. But now, after five years, I see their point, and I can say that if somehow I am to become a teacher, I'll also opt for the "I think that you should..."

So to start, I think that you should not miss this book if:

  • you studied scandinavistics or you are interest in Scandinavia
  • you are a politician or you want to become one
  • you spent a part of your life - even a minimal one - in Scandinavia
  • you are thinking of moving to one of these countries
  • you study or you are stongly interest in anthropology
  • you want to understand whether you prefer to be dependent on your state or on your family

Finally, a question came out of my brain at the end book after I read the epilogue, maybe the one question I would like to ask him if I was given a chance to ask only ONE question... You know, we Readers are curious people, we know how damn hard would be to ask just one question after 400 pages...

Here it is:

What's the matter with the Republican-Monarchical discussion... intend as: Why do you question how it comes that they couldn't escape from the monarchy, instead of asking how can it be that they did not find an innovative alternative to Republic State or Parliamentary Monarchy? .... which are by the way old solutions which are constantly failing to make our World a better place....

Best quotations on my opinion:

"To ask your host whether you should take off your shoes is to imply a reluctance to do so; the polite host might not want to impose, but will the secretly despise you for sullying their floors".

"To achieve authentic, sustained happiness, above all else you need to be in charge of your life, to be in control of who you want to be, and be able to make the appropriate changes if you are not.


Thanks to the author for his outstanding work.
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Thank you very much for reading! Hopefully my review was a determinant factor leading you to either purchase the book or simply borrow it. Keep reading, keep writing, keep thinking! Feel free to comment and share my post, I hope you enjoyed it.

Check my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn

Just in case you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any sponsor for writing my reviews.


Following this book:

FREAKONOMICS
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

THINKING, FAST and SLOW
by Daniel Kahneman